Another life

Here are piles of blue books with the colourful cover image – a painting by my brother-in-law – and glowing endorsements. Publication of Another life is perfectly timed: I’ll be giving my debut collection as Christmas presents. Some friends and family members have already ordered additional copies too. Manchester city centre is heaving with the crowds attracted by the Christmas markets, so the launch is postponed till early 2017.

I sold my first copy last Saturday to Pansy Maurer-Alvarez who’d flown in from Strasbourg to read at Barlow’s Cigarette. She’s published by KFS – knivesforksandspoonspress.co.uk. I very much liked her work. And the invite to read got me to brush up and polish some more experimental work and “found” poems. It was fun to include German and Dutch words and phrases and my performance was well received.